Sustainability Indicator: 59% Payback

Today's sustainability indicator, 59 percent, is the proportion of corporate
emissions-reductions efforts that pay for themselves in 3 years or less.

This month's indicators:

$10 billion: annual savings on U.S. electric bills from new lightbulb
standards.30: large power plants it takes to produce the electricity
equivalent to the lightbulb savings.
63 percent: surge in new solar capacity added in Europe last year.57
percent: potential decline in new solar capacity in 2012 amid economic
uncertainty.
$71 billion: investment by oil industry to develop low-emission biofuels in the
last decade.$43 billion: investment by U.S. government over the same
duration.
170 degrees Fahrenheit: reading on traditional black rooftops on NYC's hottest
day last year.42 degrees: temperature reduction reached by energy-efficient
white roofs. 2 million: premature deaths each year from cooking with
primitive stoves or open fires
#2: rank of indoor pollution from stoves among environment health risks, after
unsafe water.$1.4 trillion: spending by people over age 60 in Japan last
year as the population ages.23.3%: record proportion of Japanese population
over age 65.
1.7 billion metric tons: CO2 pollution saved by the 20-year-old Energy Star
program.
2 years: time it takes to generate that much pollution from electricity to all
U.S. homes.
1/3: proportion of world's antibiotics consumed in India, where new superbugs
were found.
35.3 gigawatts: North Sea offshore wind capacity projected by 2020.3.2%: EU
electricity demand supplied by 35.3 gigawatts.2.5 billion: people worldwide
who don't have bank accounts, which can reduce poverty16%: banking done by
mobile phones in Sub-Sahara Africa, where bank access is limited.77 cents:
income women in the U.S. receive for every $1 paid men get doing the same
work.1: the number of occupations, out of 265, where women get paid more
than men.70%: proportion of world's population that will be living in urban
areas by 2050.50%: world's population currently living in rural areas.$5
trillion: global investment in clean energy by 2020 to contain climate
change.$409 billion: worldwide government subsidies given to the fossil-fuel
industry in 2010.$66 billion: global subsidies for renewable energy in
2010.$90 billion: wealth of the richest 70 members of China's National
People's Congress.$7.5 billion: wealth of all 660 top officials in the three
branches of U.S. government.134: earthquakes last year in central U.S.,
where seismic activity is linked to fracking.21: average annual earthquakes
in central U.S. in the three decades prior to 2000.13 million tons: CO2
emissions saved by Wal-Mart's recycling and waste-reductions last year.2.3
million: cars needed to be taken off the road to reduce CO2 emissions by 13
million tons.240 gigatons: mass lost from the Greenland ice sheet each year
from 2002 to 2012.0.7 millimeters: annual sea level from the melting
Greenland ice sheet.61 percent: amount of Spain's electricity demand that
was met by wind power on April 16396.53 parts per million: carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere as of April 14.350 parts per million: maximum CO2 before
environmental damage from climate change.130 billion pints: beer consumption
expected in China in 2016.29%: increase in China's 2016 beer consumption
over 2011.$1 trillion: worldwide investments in renewable energy through
2011.82%: decline in solar panel prices since August 2009.117,182:
electric cars and hybrids vehicles sold globally last quarter.49%: rise in
electric and hybrid sales compared with the same quarter a year ago.